College Report: MM grad Shelton makes splash for water polo squad
Monday, November 6, 2006 7:24 AM PST
By Rick McCorkle, columnist
Printable version
E-mail this articleMark Morris High graduate Seth Shelton is finding himself a key component in the success of the University of La Verne's water polo team this year.
Shelton, a junior utility player, was recently named the Western Water Polo Association Player of the Week after netting a team-high six goals and handing out four assists in victories over Harvard and Cal Tech.
After earning a second-team all-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference selection as a sophomore, Shelton leads the Leopards with 40 goals. The SCIAC includes 13 colleges in Divisions I through III, and Shelton is the first Division III player to receive the honor.
He also scored five goals in a 14-7 setback to the University of the Redlands, and had two in a 15-5 triumph over Occidental College.
Kelso's Keever Henry, a junior with the Western Washington University cross country team, ran to his second all-Great Northern Athletic Conference award during the recent championships.
Henry placed seventh in the men's 8-kilometer race in 25 minutes, 26.63 seconds to lead the Vikings to the team title. Another Kelso runner, Greg Kubitz, placed 19th for Western in 25:56.55.
In the women's 6-kilometer race for St. Martin's University, Kelso's Jessie Dunnam placed 28th in 23:45.07, and Toledo's Amy Layton finished 32nd in 23:53.07. the Saints placed seventh in the team standings behind champion Seattle Pacific University.
Ex-Mark Morris High runner Katrina Brett finished 18th out of 82 runners in the women's 6-kilometer run at the Northwest Conference Championships held at Pacific Lutheran University. Brett, who finished the course in 22 minutes, 40.80 seconds, helped 10th-ranked Willamette University to its fourth consecutive conference title.
Brett will be competing in the upcoming NCAA Division III West Regional Championships in Chico, Calif.
Three ex-Kelso defensive standouts, Tyler Minium, David Sari and Jeff Ford, are playing football at Mesa Junior College in San Diego.
Minium has started five of seven games this season at defensive end and has earned two Defensive Player of the Week awards. In a recent outing, he made four tackles, had a quarterback sack and stripped the ball from an opposing running back and ran it back 72 yards for a touchdown. Minium has notched six quarterback sacks this season.
Ford suffered a season-ending injury during a recent practice when he collided with a teammate and tore his medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments. He's expected to play next season at defensive end.
The Olympians are coached by Matt Kofler, son of former Kelso High coach Otto Kofler.
Mark Morris High grad Brock Argyropoulos, a freshman tight end at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, caught two passes including a 28-yard scoring strike from Columbia River's A.J. Brown in a recent 44-7 loss to Pacific Lutheran University. The TD catch was Argyropoulos' first since he was converted from quarterback to tight end earlier in the season.
Ex-Kelso and Lower Columbia College soccer standout Alice (Fox) Dietz, a senior forward at The Evergreen State College, was recently named the Cascade Conference Soccer Player of the Week.
Dietz netted three goals in a 3-1 victory over Northwest University at Kirkland and scored a goal in the second half of the Geoducks' 2-1 triumph over Albertson College of Idaho in the second round of the conference tournament. She's among the conference leaders in goals (10) and assists (six).
A pair of former standout local prep athletes have helped the Concordia University Cavaliers to claim their seventh straight Cascade Collegiate Conference women's soccer title. Freshman forward Breeanne Barker of Mark Morris has appeared in 15 matches and has scored three goals and handed out one assist, and Rainier's Noel Cameron is a senior midfielder who has started 16 matches and has two goals and three assists.
Another former Mark Morris player, Kim Bonnes, is a junior forward at Washington State University who has netted two goals and has an assist.
A number of former local prep standouts squared-off when Warner Pacific College visited Northwest University in Kirkland for a Cascade Collegiate Conference showdown.
Warner Pacific, behind the play of ex-R.A. Long and LCC standout Kayli Anderson, Rainier's Tara Andrews and Castle Rock's Laura Wheeler, defeated Northwest 3-2 which included former Mark Morris star Kara Van Zanten. Andrews had 62 assists, made 13 digs and served five aces, Anderson added 18 digs and Wheeler had a kill in the match, while Van Zanten tallied 17 kills and 20 digs. Warner recently claimed its first-ever win over Corban College as Andrews amassed 45 assists and Anderson collected 28 digs.
For the season, Anderson has made 357 digs and served 15 aces, Andrews has 818 assists, 56 kills, 35 aces, 211 digs and 12 block assists, and Wheeler has 44 kills, 17 solo blocks and 52 block assists.
Van Zanten leads Northwest in kills (196), digs (250) and is second in aces with 23.
Another Mark Morris graduate, Mary Kate Morgan, is a junior with the Gonzaga University women's golf team. Morgan carded rounds of 76-80-79 to tie for 52nd place at the recent Price's "Give 'Em Five" Intercollegiate Tournament held on the New Mexico State University Golf Course.
Ex-Lower Columbia College men's basketball player Bryan Freshwater is beginning his senior season at Central Washington University. Freshwater, who averaged 7.3 points two seasons ago at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, gives the Wildcats a true post player to match up with the other big men in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
"... Bryan gives us a power game that we can go to as well as the shooting touch from the perimeter," CWU coach Greg Sparling said on the team's Web site.
Central Washington, which hasn't won a conference title in men's basketball since grabbing the 1999 PacWest championship, is a solid favorite to win its first GNAC crown. The Wildcats received six of nine first-place votes in the recent GNAC Coach's Poll, outpointing defending West Regional champ Seattle Pacific University for the top spot.
Rick McCorkle is a sportswriter for The Daily News. If you know of a local athlete in college sports who hasn't been mentioned in this report, call McCorkle at 577-2529 or e-mail him at rickmc@tdn.com.
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